BLACKBERRY STRENGTHENS CYBERSECURITY OFFERING FOR THE CANADIAN AND U.S. GOVERNMENT; BRINGS NIAP-CERTIFIED SECUSUITE STATESIDE

BlackBerry Ltd. has expanded its cybersecurity offerings for the public sector to now include SecuSuite for government, a multiplatform solution for end-to-end encryption of voice calls and text messages. Part of BlackBerry Secure, the most secure and comprehensive platform to connect people, devices, processes and systems, SecuSUITE for Government is the only National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP) certified voice solution supporting iOS, Android and BlackBerry 10 smartphones and tablets. It is also BlackBerrys first secure mobile voice product listed on both the NIAP Product Compliant List (PCL) and NSA Commercial Solutions for Classified Program (CSfC) List.

"Call tapping is happening at an alarming rate," said Alex Thurber, SVP and General Manager of Mobility Solutions, BlackBerry. "In today's connected world, restricting agency employees to only exchange classified information from the desk phone is no longer a viable option, but it could be the new reality if governments don't start securing calls and texts from mobile devices. Our governments need to be mobile and they need their conversations secure, or more importantly, BlackBerry Secure."

With the NIAP Common Criteria certification, SecuSUITE for Government can now help Federal agencies safeguard sensitive conversations against electronic eavesdropping. BlackBerry's solution is hosted on premise, giving full control to the customer, something agencies want and need. It is highly reliable and delivers secure calls over carrier networks the same as secure calls over Wi-Fi, and because it works across all networks, there is no need to lock an organization into a single carrier.

BlackBerry SecuSUITE is a leading solution for government-grade protection of critical mobile communication used by more than 20 governments across the globe. In addition to more than 80 security certifications, BlackBerry was once again named a Leader in Gartner's June 2017 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Mobility Management Suites. BlackBerry also received the highest score in all six use cases of Gartner's August 2016 "Critical Capabilities for High-Security Mobility Management" report.

Editor's Note: The NIAP is responsible for U.S. implementation of the Common Criteria and oversees evaluations of commercial IT products for use in national security systems. The products on the NIAP PCL comply with the requirements of the NIAP program and are evaluated and accredited for conformance to the Common Criteria.

The Globe and Mail reports in its Monday edition that BlackBerrys remain the smart phone of choice for federal employees. The Globe's Shane Dingman writes that picking bureaucrats out of the crowd is about to become more difficult. Over the next 18 months, Ottawa's sprawling IT department, Shared Services Canada, will begin offering alternative devices in what it calls "a new approach to mobile service to better serve its clients, use new technology and adapt to changes in the marketplace." Samsung Electronics will be the first vendor of an Android-based smart phone approved for federal employees, winding down BlackBerry's long-held dominance. Samsung finally has devices that match the gold standard set BlackBerry's past hardware efforts. It took two years for Samsung to stickhandle through Shared Service's requirements. The company had to prove that, like BlackBerry, it could pass several military-grade certifications required by agencies such as the spymasters at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Communications Security Establishment (CSE). Samsung said Canada will be the 30th government that has adopted Samsung Knox for its secure environments.